


Your Heartbeat Echoes In My Ears

by Spoodlemonkey



Series: Inktober/Goretober [10]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Character Death, M/M, Sort Of, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 20:11:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12373155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoodlemonkey/pseuds/Spoodlemonkey
Summary: “So you think...vampires?” Dick casts a skeptical glance his way. “You don’t believe in vampires.”





	Your Heartbeat Echoes In My Ears

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd and posted in a hurry! All mistakes my own.

They’re perched on the roof of a two story building in the fourth hour of their surveillance. Bruce had discovered the warehouse being used to store weapons, and Dick had followed the trail of weapons to Gotham. He has a love hate relationship with surveillance ops, hours of sitting around, keeping alert while the rest of him slowly goes numb from sitting still. He certainly has enough experience with it; years with Bruce and then on the force. 

The main upsides of surveillance are usually that he’s  _ not _ getting shot (not shot at, that he’s fine with so long as he’s faster than the guy shooting the weapon. Faster than a bullet is Clark’s thing, not his), and when in Gotham it means Bruce has to stay in one place and that means Dick can usually get a conversation going with the older man. 

“Blood drained from their bodies, twin punctures found near a major artery.” 

He never claimed the conversation would be  _ cheerful _ .

“So you think...vampires?” Dick casts a skeptical glance his way. “You don’t believe in vampires.”   
“No, but there are others out there that could manage it.” Bruce allows. Aside from Manbat, Batman is the closest Gotham will  _ ever _ have to a vampire. Unless you’re going with the ‘sparkle in the sunlight’ kind, in which case Dick would pay good money to see Bruce covered in glitter.

“Have you had any luck tracking them?”

Bruce makes a frustrated sound, something anyone else would miss, but Dick has had the sound directed at him many a time over the years. He nudges Bruce with his shoulder.

“You could show me the files after, if you wanted a second set of eyes, B.” 

Bruce doesn’t look at him but his tone is grateful.

“I’ll have Alfred pull them up for you.”

Moments like these Dick wonders why he doesn’t come back to Gotham as often as he should. When it’s the pair of them and things are uncomplicated for once. He soaks up the feeling, of knowing if only in this moment, that he’s the one Bruce trusts, the one he lets in, even if it’s rare. 

There’s movement down below and Dick draws his attention back to the here and now as a delivery truck pulls up at the loading bays.

“Looks like we might have our shipment.” 

Bruce nods. They watch silently as they start unloading the heavy crates. Now’s as good a time as any to catch them in the act. A heavy hand lands on his shoulder, squeezing gently. Dick leans into the touch as easy as breathing.

“Will you,” Bruce clears his throat, uncharacteristically hesitant. “Are you staying the night?”

Dick glances at him, meets Batman’s blank stare through the lenses of his mask, but he’s never really needed to see beyond the mask to read Bruce. 

“Not in my old room.” He clarifies. 

The hand on his shoulder falls away and he catches it before it can go far, twines their fingers together. That’s answer enough, for both of them.It’s probably a bad idea, but he can’t find it in himself to care. 

The weapons dealers go down easily. He and Bruce split up, know each other's movements so intuitively that it’s takes less than five minutes and they barely even get shot at. 

Dick’s zip tying a particularly mean looking dealer when he catches sight of another hiding in the alley between the buildings.

“Got another,” he calls to Bruce and takes off after the man. 

It’s easy to catch up to him, he hasn’t gone far. He’s better dressed than the thugs they’ve just taken out, looks younger too. Brains behind the operation? 

“Leaving the party so soon?” Dick quips, he reaches for the man and then blinks because he’s suddenly  _ gone _ . 

“What,” he regains his footing quickly, turns and finds the man behind him. Okay, he’s  _ fast _ . Some sort of meta?

The man’s hand shoots out and Dick manages to dodge the first lunge but not the second and suddenly a grip like steel has wrapped itself around his throat.

He chokes, his air suddenly cut off. His fingers scrabble at the vice grip, panic welling up. His fingers don’t budge. 

He goes for the eyes, jabs, but his wrist is caught. There’s a  _ snap _ and searing pain. The hand on his throat loosens at the same time and he screams, vision fading out briefly. 

“ _ Nightwing _ !” He hears Bruce but all he can see is the man that has him in his grip. His eyes bleed black and Dick thinks for a moment he’s imagining it. Then the man grins and reveals rows of sharp, wicked looking teeth. And then the teeth are in his neck. 

The pain is even worse than his shattered wrist. He can feel his skin tear, is nauseous from the sound of him sucking down Dick’s blood greedily. He’s light headed from the pain, the blood loss, but he can finally see Batman over the man’s shoulder, streaking towards them like the vengeance he embodies. 

The man jerks, snarls and drops Dick. 

He lands on the dirty pavement, numb. The ground grows wet under him. His hearing is fading out, the sky above him is growing darker, the stars disappearing. He can’t hear what’s happening, can’t see, can only hope that Bruce is alright.

His chest is heavy. He can’t catch a breath.

The world fades out.

His heart stops.

 

::

 

Hours later he opens his eyes to the ceiling in the cave. 

Everything hurts. The lights are too bright, the sounds too loud. His bones ache. 

He groans.

Above all he’s  _ starving _ . He’s  _ never _ felt this kind of gnawing hunger before. His gums ache, he grips his stomach, pressing, hoping to alleviate some of the constant pain.

“Dick,”

He squints, notices the bars for the first time, sees Bruce on the other side of them holding a bag of what looks like blood. He realizes he can  _ smell it _ , smell the other man too. It smells  _ incredible. _

It takes him a moment to realize how  _ wrong _ it all feels.

“What did you do?” He gasps, crawls onto his belly feeling weak, limbs useless.

“I couldn’t let you go.” Bruce’s face is in shadow but Dick can hear the grief in his voice. The memories of the attack filter back in with growing horror. “Eat, you’ll feel better. Then we’ll talk.” 

He doesn’t have to ask what Bruce means, he tosses the blood bag in a moment later and Dick falls onto it ravenously. He sinks his teeth into the plastic, feels it pop and then the heady taste of copper fills his mouth.

He’s  _ never _ tasted anything as amazing. 

Bruce stays the entire time, tosses another blood bag in and Dick tries to muster up some anger at being treated like an animal but he’s having trouble putting together a full thought as he sates his hunger. 

And then there’s no more, and it’s just him and Bruce in the silence of the cave and revulsion washes through him at the blood on his hands, on his face. 

“No, no, no.” He shoves away from the remains of the bags, from  _ Bruce _ . “What the hell did he  _ do to me _ ?”

“We’ll figure this out.” Bruce promises, quiet but firm.

Dick curls up as far away as the cage allows and feels the hopelessness of the situation catch up to him. He sobs, pulls his knees to his chest and tries to hide the monster he’s become from Bruce. He  _ can’t _ have Bruce see him like this. Anyone but Bruce.

He listens as Bruce walks away, footsteps fading as he heads out into the main cave. He can still hear his heartbeat though. It’s pounding. 

His gums itch at the sound. 

He fists his hands in his hair, shoves his palms against his ears and begs for the sound to be blocked out. 


End file.
